Are UC colleges looking for diversity or just the top high schools and students?

@Prajwal thank you for your question. It's a very good one.

With the ending of Affirmative Action across the country and UC and CalState schools being "RACE BLIND" for many years, it's not surprising that a top state school like UCLA is not a very diverse place at all.

UCLA admissions is more of a meritocracy that doesn't give applicants a bump for coming from a marginalized and underprivileged background. If you compare UCLA to America in terms of race, you will see that at UCLA Black and Brown folk are severely underrepresented. And Asian students are over-represented by a factor of 413%.

Black or African American alone USA 13.6% vs. UCLA 3.56%

American Indians and Alaska Native alone USA 1.3% vs. 0.193%

Asian alone, USA 6.3% vs UCLA 26%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, USA 0.3% vs UCLA 0.156%

Two or More Races, USA 3.0% vs. UCLA 5.98%

Hispanic or Latino, percent USA 19.1% vs UCLA 5.98%

White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, USA 58.9% vs. UCLA 27.4%

Now let's compare that to Columbia University Undergrad (CC, SEAS, GS)

Black or African American alone USA 13.6% vs. Columbia 7.13%

American Indians and Alaska Native alone USA 1.3% vs. Columbia 0.03%

Asian alone, USA 6.3% vs Columbia 17.9%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, USA 0.3% vs Columbia 0.014%

Two or More Races, USA 3.0% vs. Columbia 6.24%

Hispanic or Latino, percent USA 19.1% vs. Columbia14.69%

White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, USA 58.9% vs. Columbia 32.32%

So at Columbia, the admissions office deeply cares about making sure that Black and Brown folk are better represented on campus and while the numbers are not at parity with the general % population in America, they are much better than UCLA which is supposed to represent the best interests of the California population but falls flat.

This might be surprising for some readers because typically state schools are supposed to be fair havens but in reality, if you are a smart, talented unpriviledged person, you will always do better to apply to a top Private Research University or Liberal Arts College that has generous funding for need-based financial aid.

Hope this was useful for you.